I have a very special review of Slugdge – The Cosmic Cornucopia.

Slugdge is a fantastic 2 man studio Death Metal project from Lancashire, UK. The band consists of Kev Pearson on instrumentation, guitar & bass performance, main composition and Matt Moss on vocals, lyrics and composition. I have been following Slugdge for a few years now, and it makes me so happy to see them finally able to physically release their material. They play an absolutely enthralling take on Blackened Death Metal with prominent elements of OSDM, Sludge, Prog-Death & Doom Metal. They mix these genres so well and fluently, it really makes for an amazing musical journey. When I first heard them it was about a week after they dropped Gastronomicon. My friend showed me them on bandcamp and we each bought both of their first albums for $20 each. (They are on bandcamp for NYP download).

This album is the Bible of The Greatfather Mollusca, harvester of the universe. An epic, 24 track, reverse chronological order compilation of Slugdge’s 3 full length albums, Dim and Slimeridden Kingdoms, Gastronomicon & Born Of Slime. Each album contains 8 dark and progressive Death Metal tracks.

First you have their newest album Dim and Slimeridden Kingdoms. The songs are pretty long, with only 1 song clocking in just under 5 minutes and most of them being between 6 and 8 minutes. They do not drag on though. They progress wonderfully with great songwriting that allows the riffs to flow to one another perfectly. This album is definitely the most diverse Slugdge album. It has the most technical riffs out of any of their other albums, and some of the blackened parts, always present in Slugdge, are more Technical and Progressive in this album. One thing that may come as a downfall to some, is that this album seems to have more clean vocal range and cleaner clean vocals & ‘Priest Chants’ as I like to call them. The gents have clearly progressed at their respective instruments. Definitely noticeable in the advancement of the clean vocals and the grim highs as well as the technicality of the riffing. That’s not to take anything away from their previous works.

The middle of the album consists of most of my favourite Slugdge songs, in Gastronomicon. It has a really great instrumental intro whoch flows directly into the title track, which is almost 8 minustes long as it is. I like to think of the intro, Dark Side Of The Shroom (LOL) as part of the song Gastronomicon. This song also contains the lyrics which they will choose for their compilation title. This album has a very bleak, but yet spectral feel to it. It is dark, epic, and fantastical, all at the same time.

The last third, Born Of Slime, this is Slugdge’s first full length album, and it’s pretty much just as great as the other 2. It’s place on this compilation is well deserved even though it does sound more primitive and raw than the other 2. Slugdge, to this day has a very dark vibe to their songs, but this album is especially grim and bleak. One interesting piece of trivia is that this album’s cover art was very obviously inspired by The Destruction of Soddom and Gomorrah, painted by John Martin in 1852.

Sometimes people tend not to like compilations, and for me, it depends on the case but I generally don’t care. This one is great because it makes all 3 of Slugdge’s fantastic releases, available physically to the fans. The first 2, physically for the first time. Plus, the albums do flow really well. Though I do kind of feel that it should have gone oldest release to newest release, they obviously chose this order for a reason. One thing that I like about Slugdge that is not musical is that their titles are parodies of classic Metal titles that most fans of Slugdge have probably heard before. It is a fun Easter egg and reminds me of Cannabis Corpse and Dethklok.

For fans of Behemoth, Bal-Sagoth, The Chasm, Apocrophex, Emperor, Nile

Voidthrone

Spiritual War Tactics

Released October 31, 2016

Today we take Spiritual War Tactics for a spin. Dark and gritty this is Seattle experimental/ dissonant black metal with Deathspell Omega, and Gorguts influences blended to create this interesting release. Now by standards an E.P. is 25 minutes or less, or 4 songs, however this is four songs and almost 35 minutes in length. Let’s call it a mini album since it’s longer than the typical E.P. It was released a few months back in the fall but it comes with a Name Your Price option and when we got to listening to it. It is really worth the listen, Mortification of My Legacy had hooked right in several times in the nine minute long period of some hauntingly appealing metal. But the last two minutes of the song really get you. To be specific right around the 7:37 mark they have this really catchy riff. I was really surprised by this first track, but I am glad that they chose that to be the first song on the album. They follow that up with Nullum Emperium which is just a few seconds longer in overall length of time. And holy shit that song has two and a half minutes of solid buildup, they are not your average sounding band by any means. Sure they have the typical elements in their sound but the song writing, the song structure, the riffs and how catchy it is. I don’t find myself to be a big fan of black metal. I will always listen to new stuff (or new to me) because just like every genre, there is good music and music that is slightly less appealing to my ears. So far I have really enjoyed this album and I was curious to see if they continued to impress. So it was no surprise that Spiritual War Tactics followed the same pattern as the previous two tracks. I will be honest, with this album, I really wasn’t even sure I was going to like it, by reading the description, and the tags on their BANDCAMP page. But I am glad I did, Spiritual War Tactics was not at all what I had expected, I really dig this one. And for a NYP option picking up a digital copy is next to nothing in cost. I liked this one, it was dark, but it didn’t lose me, it caught me pretty early on with some catchy riffage and for that, it kept my interest going. I am thoroughly satisfied with this E.P. only I find myself wanting more. The whole four songs is a bit deceiving, because while it’s a good half hour of music, it almost doesn’t feel like it’s even that much. It’s a gem with that NYP option on Bandcamp and part of what made this something we had to review. 7.5/10 \m/